1980s to Present | 318 Metropolitan Ave

1980 - 1985

The next evidence of occupancy is in 1980, and we believe that the Naddaffs sold the house to the next family, Paul Davis & Beverly Banfield. Luckily for us in the middle of 2020, we received a letter from Julian Merghart, the son of Beverly.

Julian adds some great information and colour to the history of the house.

Beverly and Andre (Paul?) bought 318 Met in 1980 for $52,000, which at the time was a large sum, but Beverly worked at Fidelity, which enabled her access to a low rate of 12% (!) for the mortgage. Julian was born in 1982, and lived in the house for 3 years.

The memories he relates are those of his father, since he was too young to really remember the place:

The sloped area behind the house which runs down to Planet Street, off from Grew Ave, was created by taking the land to fill Logan Airport. His father was very active throughout the house, and recounts not only rebuilding the street-facing exterior stone wall by hand, but he built out, or finished perhaps, the upstairs (top floor) apartment to rent. He has memories of rent-dodging 'drug addict' tenants, which match well with the nature of Roslindale in the 1980s - it was a seedy and drug-ridden area at the time. It also matches with Mimi's recollection of a bunch of 'crazy people' living there for a while. He also recalls how the pocket doors were broken and fell out of their holdings, almost striking Julian. These doors are heavy, and so he would most likely have been seriously hurt.

In 1985, Beverly sold the house to the next owners - the Foleys, for $100,000 - before moving to Norton, MA. Julian eventually moved to Texas.

During the '70s, it seems that the house wasn't cared for very well. So much so, that after Beverly bought the house in 1980, the City hit her with a couple of citations to repair the disintegrating porch and external (egress) stairs - tough luck to say it wasn't her fault. Julian's dad continued to be handy around the house, and the City records show that he repaired the porch and stairs to their satisfaction.

However, there may still have been a lot of work required to fully finish them - as after the sale in 1985, it is the next owner who fully rebuilds the porch, but notably not the egress stairs. These stairs no longer exist, it is likely that it was around this time that they were removed.

1985 - 2016

Brian and Marilyn Foley bought 318 Met Ave from Beverly , and lived there for 30 years until 2016. Brian was a police officer in the City of Boston, and Marilyn was a talented professional magazine photographer - she even installed a dark room in the central bay of the house's basement for processing film (the Fox's wine cellar).

Brian knew that the house needed exterior and interior work, and was clearly ready to take on this further work and repair the house. After a few permitting hiccups, he started a full restoration of the porch/piaza in 1987. This was completed in 1989 and is as it stands today (albeit with a complete stripping and new paint cover in 2020). We think it is also likely the Brian removed the second floor egress stairs, and applied a flat rubber roof to the kitchen roof area and even added a wooden deck on the top of the kitchen. This had access from one of the bedrooms and the office (the old egress door) in 2016.

Yulia, the owner of 44 Maynard St in 2020, tells of the memory of Brian placing all the original windows out on the curb on trash day, when he replaced them himself. Yulia still regrets not grabbing them before they disappeared - on 44 Maynard St, many of the windows are still original, with newer storm windows placed on top. In 318 Met, the only original windows still exist in the bathroom above the porch, although many of the frames are still original - as can be seen by the poorly installed new replacement windows.

Orginal windows

2016 From Maynard

2016 From Met Ave

2016 Deck on kitchen

2016 Old kitchen

2016 New kitchen

2016 - Present

In 2016, Adam Shutes and Vissia Viglietta bought 318 Met Ave. Adam had moved to Roslindale to 2008, and lived on Seymour St, in a little cape-style house. Vissia had lived in Back Bay, but was convinced to move to Roslindale, after experiencing some neighborhood meetings. Their previous house is no more than 0.5 mil from Met Ave.

Adam was born in Norfolk, in the UK, and received a Biochemistry & Molecular Biology undergraduate degree from Oxford, and his PhD from University College London. Looking for a change of scenery as well as somewhere to learn different techniques he moved to the USA to research cancer biology, first in academia (in North Carolina) and then in the biotech field (in Boston). He has worked in oncology, immunology, and the neurodegenerative disease fields, and have so far been involved in placing several drug candidates into the clinic, including MEK inhibitors, and Ibrutinib, Avapritinib, and Fisogatinib. In 2015, he turned away from a disfunctional biotech company (Blueprint Medicines), and put his energy towards working locally in Roslindale, by opening the cheese shop on Birch St. With the oncoming pandemic, the cheese shop closed, although he still maintains the website bostoncheesecellar.com, where you can keep up with his cycling touring travels - further exploring the cheese and agricultural world. He is still involved in the Roslindale community, being the driving force behind pedestrianising Birch St, and generally active in encouraging non-car based transportation.

Vissia, a clinician, was born near Rome in Italy, and got her degree in Medicine at La Sapienza University, focussing on endocrinology. She came to Harvard to continue her endocrinology work before moving to neurology and into biotech where she has worked in a number of diseases including multiple sclerosis, Alzheimers Disease and Huntington's Disease. She was the key clinician who approved the blockbuster Tecfidera for Biogen in the USA and in Europe, and is currently the Chief Medical Officer of NidoBioscience, Cambridge, MA.

Vissia's father is a woodworker of 40 years experience, and so he was thrilled to travel from Italy to come and work on the house. In his first three months, he, Vissia and Adam repaired the pocket doors - which had almost killed Julian. Instead of fixing correctly, they had been cut to a different height. He rebuilt the bannisters of the outside piazza, which had been installed upside down. He rebuilt part of the stairs which had been dismantled, with original wood pieces (finials etc) which we found in the basement. He repaired the oak fireplace which had been altered with some fake coats of arms. He remounted the windows which had been installed incorrectly. He also built the Little Library which sits on the corner of Met Ave and Maynard for everyone to use.

I have always had a green thumb and so in 2016 and 2017 he filled the bare garden along Met Ave with a mix of fruit trees (pear, apple, peach), to accompany the cherry trees already along Maynard St. The back garden receives a lot of morning and afternoon sun, and so after installing a large patio, so I built some raised beds for vegetables, greens and rhubarb.

The largest change to the house, was to take the rotting deck from on top of the kitchen and install an English conservatory (or Italian belvedere), to absorb the year round sunshine at that corner of the house. Meanwhile, Vissia has been using her own woodworking and finishing skills to work on the interior of the house, and restore Victorian furniture to provide a feel of the era.